Episode Eight: Look, Tim Gunn, I Can Dress Myself!

I'm working more images into this post. Guess what happens to the quality!



We said goodbye to Angela this week, shipping her right back to America before she'd even gotten settled. Yes, her tears are rosette-shaped.
I'm not particularly happy or sad, because we all knew this was going to happen at some point. We're down to six, and there just ain't room for Holly Hobby.
I took the liberty of looking up who Holly Hobby is, and Tim Gunn once again scores points for accuracy.



So, the episode kicked off with drama. Drama, drama, drama. More Jeff, more Angela, more overreacting, more Laura making spiky comments... lame. Even the models were talking behind each other's backs.
Just give me the clothes, please. At least the runway delivered. I love, LOVE the idea of the designers dressing themselves- it's a twist, but you still get a solid idea of their style.

Except for Vincent. He made a plain black top with plain black bottoms. They looked comfy, but Michael Kors once again urged "this is a DESIGN competition".
The judges were a little spicy this week, eh? I thought Uli's dress was beautiful, and appeared comfortable, even if it looked a bit like things she had done before. Have they met Laura?
I nor anyone should be surprised that the judges were inconsistent from one week to the next. Last week they honored a point of view, even if it was a disaster, and they did away with the most basic design. They had the same situation this week (there's even the fact that the basic design in both cases was out of the designer's comfort zone), and made the opposite decision. Heck, they didn't even put the boring design in the bottom two. As they say in France, le sigh.
Also on the Vincent front, he seemed a bit too anxious to take off his pants. Not helping the borderline-creepy image.



How cute was Michael teaching Kayne how to walk? I love Kayne, but he really does need someone around to help him tone down his outrageous fabulousness. Oh, how glad I am that he's still around. He's like ma sunshine.

Note to Michael Knight: get away from white! I'd love to see you at Fashion Week, but not if every single outfit is going to be white or gold. I was not down with Michael's pants. I believe they were touched by his noodley appendage.



Of course, there was a twist Part II. Cut to Angela being shocked, over and OVER again.
You're not being judged yet.

You're going on a trip.

On a plane.

In an HOUR!


The flight was to Paris, as many people had already predicted. Michael had no idea they had a Parons in Paris, but an internet full of fans certainly did. I pretty much squealed when Tim Gunn boarded the plane- of course he was going with them, but it's so cute when he gets all father-figure. Jeffrey expressed that rare sentimentality that makes him endearing to me- "I don't know what I'll do after this if I can't have Tim Gunn popping up in my life."

Oh, and bravo for Jeffrey finally winning something! He's been validated, and I'm now totally ok if he doesn't make the final three. I'm also OK if he does. There's a lot of talent in the room- I'd be interested in seeing most of their collections.
Eeeexcept Vincent. I hate to keep bringing him up, but you know how in season one, they all started looking at Robert and saying "how is he still here"? I predict this happening with Vincent very soon.

Note to Bravo: during the shots of Paris, I definitely heard at least one score from Amelie. I love Amelie, and I love Project Runway, but in very different ways- please don't mix them.

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Episode Seven: The First One I've Recapped.

The time of darkness has ended. Camp is over, and I have returned to provide yet another snarky recap to the masses. I didn't think there were enough, you know. Sorry if I skip around and leave out details- I'm not quite back in the rhythm yet.

You may or may not know that I used to gank all of my screencaps from the official site. This season, however, they're displayed in flash, and it's a pain to hit print screen, paste them into Microsoft Paint and cut out the rest of the page. So, my brilliant time-saving trick is meticulously recreating desired scenes with Microsoft Paint.

Just kidding, they're not meticulous at all!



We said goodbye to Robert this week. The show is now 10% less fabulous. I'm ok with this elimination, because while he can make a fine garment, he's yet to make a fine, interesting garment. Except of course when he was paired with Kayne, who is perhaps too interesting.

So, this challenge demanded the designers design for the moms and sisters of their competitors, which is a great idea in theory, but fell short for me in execution (I'm STILL waiting for the maternity wear challenge, Bravo). The body types were greatly varied, therefore the challenge obviously skewed. Did it bother anyone else that the designer for one of the tallest, slimmest mothers won; while the arguably shortest and stoutest sister's designer was aufed?
Laura and Vincent were shown talking about sucking it up and making it work with plus-sized models- but they were of the lucky few that didn't have plus-sized models and therefore didn't have to move out of their comfort zone. Lame.

(Important tidbit of this episode that I couldn't fit anywhere else: Laura is pregnant- for the sixth time- and accidently tells her mom about it over brunch. Hilarious, right?)

It did not sit well with me that Vincent, even with Uli's beautiful mother, turned out his signature strange simplicity. But for whatever reason, the judges went nuts for it. I'm pretty psyched that Tim Gunn agrees with my assessment, down to the damn back of the dress.



What is that! Mr. Gunn, whom I am exponentially growing more fond of, also agrees that this should have been Uli's victory. I can't MSPaint it properly, but believe me, it moved so nicely. She used an age-appropriate but still stylish print, and made the personality of her plus-sized model (Kayne's mother) stand out.

I'm not saying Uli's my favorite, but I'd be happy to see her go to the final three. I'm also not trying to hate on Vincent, he's not villianous or anything. I guess minimalism gets him off/turns him on, and Kimya Dawson is really fond of him. I just don't... prefer him. In honesty, I'd rather see what Allison would create for this challenge.
Strangely enough, I think my favorite at this point is Jeffrey, assholey-ness aside. It was Katherine (RISD girls have a special place in my heart), then Bonnie, then Bradley. The problem with loving the underdog is that they eventually lose, unless they're also good television. I was very fond of Michael's early creations, but I'm a fan of color and his palette is pretty bland. I definitely thought Jeffrey ought to be recognized over him in the recycling challenge. Plus, I'm a sucker for tough guys with a soft side- he shed a tear for Robert in the end.
I'm seeing serious Jeff-hate all over the internet and not really getting it. I get that he's a jerk and maybe a pig, but he's not "the most loathsome thing ever". I was irked when I saw a comment on another blog that said "he thinks he is the new santino... but the point is santino actually made clothes...not sewn-together masses of crap." Come on now, this is one hot mass of crap. The commenter is, however, totally right in the fact that it's not sewn together, it's glued.

The number one reason for Jeff-hate this week is the drama he got into with his model, Angela's mother. Who would've guessed that these two weren't compatible?



She didn't like the outfit, and he didn't have the time or expirience to design something different, so they argued about it and- I don't care. This fight, if you can call it that, was just a lot of overreaction on both sides.

His outfit was pretty awful- Angela's mama pulled out "matronly" against him on the runway. She's watched the show before. He wasn't out, though, because he's more likely than Robert to make something decent in the future. If only the judges took into account the designer's full body of work in every challenge, eh?

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